Games consoles, such as Xbox 360™, have been developed which enable a gamer to play games on their own (single player games) or games with other gamers over a network (multi-player games). Typically the software for running the game resides on the individual games consoles, although for multi-player games, the game play may be controlled by a server, in particular where the gamers are using different games consoles rather than different controllers connected to the same console. Games may be available to play either as a single player or as a multi-player game and whether it is a single or multiplayer game (and usually also the number of players participating in a game) is established prior to the commencement of game play.